Wonder Wheel

---

Coney Island washboard

she would play

You could hear her

on the boardwalk every day

Soapsuds all around

Little bubbles on the ground

Rub a dub a dub

in her little tub

All those tunes she found

The little thimbles on her

fingers made the noise

She played Charleston

on the laundry for the boys

She could rag a tune

Right through the knees

of a brand new suit

Of Easy Breezers

Coney Island Washboard

roundelay

Coney Island, 1950's.

The beach.

The boardwalk.

Once a luminous jewel

but growing relentlessly seedier

as the tides roll in and out.

Summers I work here,

on Bay 7.

Comes the fall, I'm a student

at New York University

going for my Master's

in European drama.

I'm Mickey Rubin.

Poetic by nature.

I harbor dreams

of being a writer.

A writer of truly great plays.

So I can one day

surprise everyone

and turn out

a profound masterpiece.

Anyhow.

Let me get to the story

in which I am a character,

so, be warned, as a poet,

I use symbols and as

a budding dramatist,

I relish melodrama and

larger-than-life characters.

Enter Carolina.

She could rag a tune

Right through the knees

of a brand new suit

Of Easy Breezers

Coney Island Washboard

roundelay

Okay, have fun.

Yup.

Excuse me.

Where's Humpty Javelin?

Does he work here?

Uh, Humpty works the carousel, uh,

but today he's working nights.

Do you know where he lives?

Uh...it's around here.

You can ask Ginny.

Ginny?

Yeah, h-his wife.

Um, she works at

Ruby's Clam House.

Just keep going down

that way there.

Thank you.

Yeah. You have a good one.

Excuse me, do you

know if Ginny's here?

Yeah. I'm Ginny.

I'm Carolina.

Who?

Carolina. Humpty's daughter.

Jesus.

Is he gonna be surprised.

I know he's gonna be upset.

But I had to come here.

I didn't want to but I...

don't have a choice.

I'll tell you the truth.

I don't think

he ever expected this.

You're his wife?

Why are you looking at me?

You're much younger

than I would've imagined.

Really?

I don't feel much younger.

I was thinking of my mother.

When she died,

she was practically

all gray.

I look like her.

Humpty should be back

in half an hour.

He went fishing off the

pier at Sheepshead Bay.

I'd always heard that

he'd moved to New Jersey.

No, we got run out

of our place there.

Oh.

Well, I'm not telling you

anything new about your father.

He fell off the wagon and

busted up the lobby.

Oh.

I guess you're

used to all this noise.

You never get used to it.

I hate it.

This whole honky-tonk fairyland.

We live up here.

The place used to house

a freak show.

We had to do

a lot of fixing up.

Oh, God.

I hope when sees me

he doesn't fly off the handle.

-No, I don't think--

-I hope he doesn't throw me out.

I-I don't know what I'll do.

I don't have

a dime to my name.

I literally don't have

ten pennies.

This-this-this goddamn noise!

I tell you.

You never get used to it.

Oh, my head's throbbing.

And my--my kid--

My kid had some trouble

in school today.

You and my father

have a child?

No, from my first husband.

Don't ever have kids.

Oh. Now my head's

cracking open.

I get migraines.

If you don't like Coney Island,

why don't you move?

From your mouth to God's ears.

Money, honey.

Mazuma, the wherewithal.

Ginny!

Ginny, big score.

Fluke,

flounder,

some uh, blue claws.

No.

No, what the hell

you doin' here?

I told you never to step

foot in my home again.

I'm in serious trouble,

I couldn't help it.

You let her in in here?

Christ!

I don't believe this.

You needs to go. Come on.

-Go.

-I can't.

If they fine me,

they're gonna kill me.

You--

You better hear her out, Humpty.

Mind your own business.

I got a bad headache!

And Richie did it again,

you were supposed to talk to him.

I talked to him.

Frank's gonna kill me.

I ran away and

I took nothing,

I-I have no clothes,

I've been sleeping

in the rain.

And I'm marked.

They're gonna kill me.

Well, that's what you get

when you marry a gangster.

Jesus, they're not gonna

come after you here, are they?

I don't want trouble.

Do you hear what I'm saying?

They're gonna kill me.

There's a young kid here!

This is not our problem.

All right, all right,

all right, knock it off.

I-I gotta have a drink.

No, Humpty, you've been good.

I g--I.. I.. I need one.

I need one,

look what's goin' on here!

No booze!

I'll make you coffee.

Goddammit.

What the hell do you

expect to happen

when you marry

a cheap hoodlum?

I was twenty.

I didn't know better.

I'm sorry.

Why didn't you

go to the police?

I told the police too much,

that's the problem.

Why the hell

you open your mouth?

The police told me

that I could be looking at

five years

if I didn't cooperate.

What the hell do you know?

Since when do you know what

happens inside the rackets?

How could I not know?

Can't be married

to one of those guys

and not pick up

on what's going on.

Jesus Christ!

I told you not

to marry that racketeer!

I told you he was all mobbed up.

He stank of murder.

She found this-this

greaseball exciting.

He wasn't even good-lookin'!

He was a punk.

I need a drink!

Forget it, Humpty.

I need one, goddammit!

Calm down.

Jesus Christ.

God damn it, she could've

married a few guys

from school, from

the neighborhood, all of 'em.

Decent kids.

We raised her nice.

Your mother and I

we broke our backs

out of workin'

so you could go to college

and-and you know,

you didn't.

You threw it all away!

Look at ya--

you're such a beautiful girl!

You had your pick.

I loved Frank, okay?

And all the guys you

hand-picked for me, they were--

dull, colorless, boring guys.

All of 'em, honest men,

every one of 'em.

Christ!

Your mother's

last dying request

on her deathbed

was that you didn't

run off with that

slime, Frankie Adatto.

You wouldn't give her that one

bit of satisfaction, would ya?

You wouldn't

let her die in peace.

I loved him.

I was twenty,

I... I wanted more.

More.

More. More what?

Jesus, Humpty.

There's a world out there.

This does not concern you.

All I know is

you lost your head.

Your head was in the clouds

over that gutter guinea

that flashy, cheap,

flashy little wop.

You didn't think I knew

he carried a gun up here?

Huh?

He'll know...

He'll know you came here.

No. It's the last place he'll look.

He knows how you feel about me.

Yeah.

You mean he knows

how much he hated me

for callin' it the way I saw it.

Christ.

I counted on you when she died.

I was lost.

You dumped me for that trash.

That's why he wouldn't think

I'd come here.

He knows that we haven't

exchanged words in five years

'cause bad blood

between us ran too deep.

He shows up here,

I'll kill him.

Oh, God, don't say that.

I don't--I don't want trouble.

All right.

Okay, my nerves

are shot as it is

-and you better calm down.

-All right.

Just don't tell me what

I should or shouldn't do.

She's my daughter.

Oh...

Oh...Christ.

You are a light, baby.

You are a light in my life.

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